Tom Dreesen

Another excellent book that details what life was like when being in the orbit of Frank Sinatra. Dreesen toured with Sinatra for 14 years as well as speaking at his funeral and had many insightful stories about Sinatra. Reading about his early years, the indifference of his father, growing up hungry, and finally, for the first time, getting 3 full meals a day when he joined the Navy at 17 is something that is going on throughout the U.S. still today. However, after finally finding out what he wanted to do, Dreesen became part of the comedy team of Tim and Tom which featured black comedian Tim Reid and of course, Dreesen, was is white. When the team broke up, he struggled for quite some time but finally got a spot in The Comedy Store and then, Johnny Carson. Touring with big name acts like Sammy Davis Jr. and Smokey Robinson lead to him being Sinatra's opening act for the last 14 years that Sinatra toured. He also became a friend of Sinatra and spent a lot of time with him. The book was well written and hard to put down.… (mehr)